Monday, 28 December 2015

George Costigan:With a winning smile, tempered by a knack for portraying sarcasm and sleaziness, character actor George Costigan has a huge body of interesting work stretching back to the mid-'70s.

Behind pebble specs, but about to be rumbled by Jeremy Brett in the mid-'80s Granada series 'The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes'

As 'Philip the Bastard' in the 1984 TV version of 'King John'. A dispute over inheritance isjudged by the king (Leonard Rossiter). His half brother (Edward Hibbert, right) loses out.

A favourite for me might be his cheerfully caustic copper from Alan Plater's 'The Biederbecke Connection', and he sticks in the mind as the randy lead in the (now probably unwatchable) 'Rita Sue and Bob Too', that jolly comedy look at grooming impressionable teenagers for sex.

He has also enjoyed a longish run in several shows including 'Emmerdale', 'Happy Valley', 'Holby City' and 'City Central'. Police roles have been usefully forthcoming, in the likes of 'Ruth Rendell Mysteries', 'The Long Firm' and 'See No Evil: The Moors Murderers'. Other popular primetimers have included 'Hetty Wainthrop Investigates', 'Bergerac', 'Inspector Morse', 2nd-generation 'Minder', Tennant-era 'Doctor Who', and dear old 'Midsomer Murders'. He's also in the movie 'Calendar Girls' (2003) as Penelope Wilton's husband Eddie.

In the Christmas Day episode of 'Doctor Who' from 2007,
'Voyage Of The Damned' as Max Capricorn

Comedy has included 'The Riff Raff Element', 'Coogan's Run', 'Murder Most Horrid' and the rather antiquated ghost comedy, 'So Haunt Me', in which he played the harassed dad of a family pestered by Miriam Karlin as a spectral Jewish grandmother.

With Sean Scanlon, as the cynically comedic coppers on an overtime-generating stake out in 'The Beiderbecke Connection'

Sunday, 6 December 2015

Still going strong at 85 as the voice of the rascally Joe Grundy on the BBC Radio 4 serial 'The Archers', Edward Kelsey is a stalwart actor with a list of TV and film credits stretching back to the late '50s. He appeared in several of those timeless series which we now like to call 'cult', including both 'The Avengers' and its '70s rehash 'The New Avengers', as well as 'Colditz', 'Doomwatch', 'The Saint', 'The Tripods' and three different Dr Who stories; the Hartnell-era 'Slave Traders', 'The Power Of The Daleks' with Patrick Troughton, and alongside Tom Baker in 'The Creature From The Pit'.

Colonel K in 'Danger Mouse'

A popular voice actor, he is also known for providing the bluster of Danger Mouse's boss Colonel K and his arch enemy Baron Greenback, and creating a pastiche of his own Joe Grundy role as Mr Growbag in the Wallace & Gromit film, 'The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit'. Other animations to benefit from his low growl include 'The Wind In The Willows', 'The Reluctant Dragon' and the Terry Pratchett-penned 'Truckers'.

In an early (1962) episode of 'The Avengers'

In an episode of the Peter Davison cosy crime favourite, 'Campion' from 1990

Not very much comedy, save for a spot in 'The Vicar Of Dibley' and 'Minder', but lots of mainstream TV drama over the past four decades. Highlights include 'The Plane Makers', 'Cranford' and 'Anna Of The Five Towns', with more everyday stuff like 'The Cedar Tree', 'Softly Softly', 'Penmarric', 'Z-Cars', 'Angels' and the ever-present 'Casualty'.